


Appendix A

by Numendil



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Laws and Customs Among the Eldar, M/M, Meta, Other, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 13:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16598675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numendil/pseuds/Numendil
Summary: A lost manuscript of Ælfwine's, seeking to explain a strange discrepancy in the laws and customs of the Eldar.Or, LaCE (of all things) proves that Russingon is 100% canon.





	Appendix A

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even particularly ship this. But I can't think of an alternate explanation any more than Ælfwine can—okay, there are a few, but this is the one the fandom wants.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE— _The following page was found among Professor Tolkien’s effects, apparently belonging to the collection of Old English manuscripts attributed to Ælfwine of England, many of which were translated by Prof. Tolkien, and still more of which were published untranslated by his son Christopher. This particular page, however, was found separated from the rest; it seems that the elder Tolkien intended to suppress it (for reasons which might be surmised), but was unwilling to destroy it. It is a postlude or appendix to the famous document ‘Laws and Customs among the Eldar’, which rather changes the picture of Elven customs that document provides._

Among the laws and customs of the Eldar concerning marriage there is a clause that seems to me strange. It is said, as I have recorded, that among the Eldar first cousins may not wed, but half-first cousins (that is, those whose parents are half-siblings) may do so. Yet it seems to me that this law should have no cause to be, for as I have elsewhere reported, the second marriage of Finwë to Indis—and thus the half-sibling relationship of Fëanor to the children of this union—was to the Eldar extraordinary beyond extraordinary, and I am led to believe that it was the only such case in their whole history.

Yet at the same time, precisely because this case was to them so extraordinary, I do not believe a law would have been made to cover it unless it were tested, which is to say that one of the sons of Fëanor must actually have been married to one of the granddaughters of Indis. Of course, here we strike a problem at once: of these there are only two, and their husbands are both known. Aredhel perhaps seems the likelier: she was ‘often in the company of the sons of Fëanor’—but it is written immediately thereafter that ‘to none was her heart’s love given’, and many years later she was married to Eöl. Perhaps she may have come to wish that she had taken one of the Fëanorians when she had the chance, but if the Valar had allowed death to dissolve her first marriage, and she had after reëmbodiment wed a son of Fëanor, it would surely have been recorded alongside the tale of Finwë and Míriel.

Thus I am left with one option, a conclusion I have long forborne to reach and still fear to put in writing, lest I be discovered: among the Eldar marriage may not be between a man and a woman only. There is, indeed, a pair which occurs to me immediately upon considering this possibility: Maedhros, son of Fëanor, and Fingon, son of Fingolfin—already known to be uncommonly close friends and widely rumoured to be lovers. That rumour, at least, I find entirely plausible; such things are common enough in heathen countries, and the Eldar, though knowledgeable of the one God (and thus not heathens in the strict sense), know neither Christ nor His Church. Nonetheless, there is no heathen nation which affords such a relationship the full dignity of marriage; indeed, Maedhros and Fingon are referred to as unmarried. So it seems that homosexual relationships among the Eldar, whether rare or common (and this I cannot say), are probably not marriage proper, but clearly recognised as analogous to it. It is unclear to me whether one involved in such a relationship could also be wed to a woman.

I do not wish to condemn the Eldar for this practice, whatever it may be; though it seems strange, and indeed sinful, to me, the essential righteousness of the faery race beyond the Western Seas is obvious to any mortal who comes into their presence. Yet few will ever be granted this privilege, and among those who have never seen them, the rumour of their being creatures of Hell is already too common. Thus I will not publish this, a slander to them, though I do not intend it as such; I will bury it, rather, in the hopes that it may be discovered by a future race possessed of broader minds.—So spake Ælfwine.


End file.
